UK’s most shocking statistic

OUR lack of knowledge about basic anatomy has been uncovered by a poll of 2,000 adults published last week. More than a third weren’t completely confident they knew where their brain was!

I think doctors often over-estimate the knowledge of the public, and use medical jargon that many patients just don’t understand. I remember one patient who said she’d been told she was dying, but I could see she had been discharged from a kidney clinic. After much digging, I discovered she had been diagnosed with an acute renal injury — temporary damage to her kidney. I spoke to her again and told her the diagnosis. Yes, she replied — she didn’t understand what renal meant, but knew it was terminal, because that’s what acute means. You can imagine her relief when I explained the situation. But it made me pause: how often had I used words assuming my patients knew what they meant? Now, I always check that they’ve understood by asking them to relay back the information I’ve given them. I also write to them afterwards so they have a record of it.

Online self-harm images are a huge problem. Unless you have a child or work with children, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate the scale of the issue. But imagine if i started giving tips on how to avoid detection when you have anorexia, or encouraged people to cut themselves? There would be an outcry. Yet social-media giants have precisely this kind of content on their sites. it’s madness. Samaritans has now intervened in the Government’s proposed Online Safety Bill, saying it doesn’t go far enough. Come on, what are we doing? We owe it to young people to ensure we have robust laws to protect them.